Caring for her husband who suffers with dementia, Comox resident Delores Broten struggles with a hard decision. He’s falling now, but should she approve strapping him into a wheelchair? It seems inhumane, and she’s reaching out for help.

If you get drinking water from a private well British Columbia, the provincial government provides no protection from any activities that might foul your water quality. Sylvia Burrosa, the regional hydrologist for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource...

The first thing I should mention is a quote by British artist and Turner Prize winner Grayson Perry: “artists should never be compared to other artists in a review”, something like that. But I can’t help comparing the latest paintings by Angel Matamoros to the late Richard Diebenkorn, West Coast’s most revered artist.

By Brent Reid While teaching journalism and information technology for several years in a networked computer environment with Internet and email access at every workstation, I learned a lot about how to use powerful, but potentially distracting, electronic devices to...

I'm amused and somewhat disappointed at all the hand-wringing about the imminent British Columbia minority government. Since the May 9 election that gave no single party a majority of seats in the B.C. Legislature, political pundits, former elected officials and...

While doing some seriously complicated scientific research on the most ergonomic entry and exit of the common household hammock, I came upon a startling statistic: more men are injured while mowing lawns each year than those who sit around and drink beer. In fact,...

The difference couldn’t be more striking. In his second inaugural address, former U.S. President Barack Obama said this: “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations … We cannot...

Municipal election countdown

Minister of Education, Rob Fleming, announced May 22 in Courtenay that the provincial government will invest $27.2 million to rebuild three-quarters of Lake Trail school. Children will be staying in the school as it’s rebuilt and construction will start next spring, with the doors re-opening in September 2021. SD71 is making a $1 million dollar investment towards the project as well.

Also announced was the creation of 60 new childcare spaces at Lake Trail, alleviating the pressures faced by many families trying to find spaces to care for their children.

Brooke Finlayson, of Comox Valley Families for Public Education, had lunch with Fleming and other education stakeholders.

“I told him that parents were asking for stable and predictable yearly funding that reflected inflation rates; that children were in need of more resources through LSTs, EAs, speech pathologists, counsellors, etc.,” she wrote on the CVFPE Facebook page. “I said our struggling learners needed better and timely access to assessments and resources; and that curricular components like sexual health, should not be downloaded to parents/PACs to fundraise to provide for every odd year.”

Sustainability Forum tomorrow night

The Comox Valley Council of Canadians, Imagine Comox Valley And the Global Awareness Network have organized a Sustainability Forum at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, in the Rotary Room of the Filberg Center in Courtenay.

The groups hope to raise the profile of sustainability in this fall’s elections, and call attention to the eight goals of the Comox Valley Sustainability Strategy that all four Valley municipal governments adopted in 2010.

Comox Valley municipal governments have passed their budgets and most taxpayers will see a small increase next year.

In Comox, Mayor Paul Ives said the town’s five-year financial plan will raise residential property taxes about 2.43 percent, which he called “basically the rate of inflation,” and that property tax increases will be stable into the future.

And, he said the tax increases are “affordable, manageable and hopefully won’t put a burden on anyone.”

In Courtenay, property taxes are expected to increase about 2.83 percent. The budget has divided Courtenay council members, with Mayor Larry Jangula and Councillor Mano Theos voting against the budget because they wanted to freeze property tax rates.

The Comox Valley Regional district has approved a budget increase of 2.7 percent, or about $3.14 million. The CVRD has factored big projects such at the water treatment plant and a new office building into its new budget.

Lame Joke Du Jour

A guy walks into a bar, and there’s a seal sitting at the far end of the room.

The seal says to the man, “I like the way you smell. You’ve got a great haircut. Your jacket looks great on you. Nice tan.”

Thought Du Jour

“Voting is how we participate in a civic society — be it for president, be it for a municipal election. It’s the way we teach our children – in school elections – how to be citizens, and the importance of their voice.”